


A Night To Remember

by thisislegit



Series: Rough Waters [16]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Angst and Humor, F/M, Includes Characters Stated, M/M, Major Character Injury, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-28
Updated: 2015-03-07
Packaged: 2018-03-15 16:36:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3454121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisislegit/pseuds/thisislegit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the horrendous incident from last year, Nami and Zoro have joined forces to construct the cook's birthday party, but will unforeseen events throw a fork in their arrangements?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Zoro knew Sanji had a prior engagement at the house of ViNaFy or whatever the hell they nicknamed their new residence. However, he was hoping to pull the red head aside so they could set up a date to plan out Sanji’s birthday party. He knocked once before the door swung upon revealing an irritated Nami.

“Just the person I wanted to see.” Zoro made a move to step in.

Nami held a hand up. “Stop. Wait a minute.”

Vivi’s voice flooded out from the hallway. “Fill my cup, put some liquor in it!”

Sanji’s voice came after. “Take a sip, sign the check, Julio get the stretch.”

Both Vivi and Sanji were singing now. “Ride to Harlem, Hollywood, Jackson, Mississippi!”

Nami stepped out and shut the door behind her muffling their voices.

“….uh.”

“They’ve been doing this all day. All fucking day, Zoro. I hope you’re here to pick him up.”

“Actually here to talk to you about setting up a time to plan Sanji’s birthday party.”

“Now, let’s do it now.” Nami opened the door to hear them still singing. “Zoro and I will be back later!”

No response was heard other than Uptown Funk now being blared from the speakers in the living room. Nami snatched her jacket from the coat hanger and slammed the door behind her. “Let’s go.”

\---

Their destination was the mall to wander around and assemble ideas. Nami was fiddling with the heat in the car while mumbling in Spanish.

“You probably have more ideas than me, so how about you start.” Zoro changed gears as he passed a stop sign.

“I was thinking Midnight Masquerade. We could rent a venue, have everyone show up formal with fancy masks. I can talk to Zeff about catering, he has a soft spot for me after dealing with Sanji for so long, so that Sanji basically has “home cooked food”. Also, a real cake, but a fake cake where someone attractive and half-naked jumps out before the real cake.”

“I was thinking, absolutely none of that.”

Nami crossed her arms. “What were you thinking then?”

“One, I’m thinking that’s expensive as all hell, but here’s my idea. Private engagement, nothing like the mess of people you plan on inviting. Casual dress. Robin has a friend that owns this nice bakery we can use since she owes me a favor, and it’s located close to the river, with tall glass windows by the door. The food will be all of Sanji’s favorites from different places. However, I do like your cake idea. Were you thinking man or woman?”

“I was thinking both, but your idea sucks. I mean, it has merit, but how is this any different from the one Sanji threw for you in your apartment?”

“Well, for starters, I won’t be hiding in the kitchen with injuries I don’t want my partner to know about.”

Nami punched his arm. Okay, yeah, that was low, but it still pissed him off thinking about it.

“It’s not in our apartment. The view is nice, and he’ll be surrounded by friends and the smell of freshly baked pastries-”

“Zoro, that is possibly the gayest thing that has ever come out of your mouth.”

“He likes to bake, and stop interrupting me. He always talks about how nice the place smells when he’s baking. That, and I may or may not have been talking to Ace about obtaining fireworks.” Zoro’s cheeks were just shy of darkening. He knew anything mushy he talked about with Nami had a risk of being told to the entire group.

“Were you thinking about lighting up the sky with his name, and wishing him a happy birthday as you whisk him away into the night?” Nami pulled out her phone and pulled up the browser to start looking for the venue.

Zoro didn’t respond.

A big grin broke out on her face. “Oh my god you were! Zoro! Oh my god!”

“Shut up! He’s always talking shit about how I’m not romantic, okay?” Zoro’s face couldn’t get any darker from his blushing.

“Okay.”

“Besides, mine’s more personal than yours. Sanji will probably be talked at by a hundred people he barely remembers if we go with your idea.” Zoro pulled into the mall parking lot. “Don’t even know why I agreed to plan this out with you.”

“Because we want to- oh, there’s a space, park there- avoid what happened last time. Sanji wouldn’t even talk to me for a week. Me! His beautiful best friend. We really fucked up.”

“Yeah, let’s not do that again.” Zoro put the car in park. “By the way, did you help Sanji plan out my birthday party?”

“No, he didn’t come to me about it. I thought he asked Law.” She hopped out of the car.

Zoro shook his head as he locked the doors. “Nope. Even Luffy and Usopp didn’t know anything about it until Sanji asked them to help him shop for supplies that day.”

“He probably planned it by himself.”

“I don’t think so, he didn’t have time leading up to it, and you know what he’s like about parties.”

Nami straightened her jacket as they headed inside. “Good point, but why does it matter?”

“It doesn’t, I’m just curious.”

“Well, let’s not get too side-tracked. We both agree that the fake cake is a go, yeah?”

“Definitely.”

“And as cheesy as it is, I do think the fireworks are cute, so we can keep that too. Now to work out all the other stuff.”


	2. Chapter 2

The last thing Zoro expected while on the job was a call from the hospital. He kept his cellphone on silent when he wasn’t on break, so they had called the work phone in Ace’s office.

“Hello, is this Mr. Roronoa?”

The shades were drawn in the office, but the ceiling light blared the room in yellow. “Yeah, this is him.”

“You were listed as an emergency contact in Mr. Blackleg’s file. Are you currently available to come to Drum Isle Hospital?”

“What happened?”

“I’m not allowed to disclose that information over the phone. Are you available?”

Zoro rubbed a hand over his face. “Yes, I’m available.”

“All right, I’ll let the doctor know. Have a good day.”

“Yeah.” Zoro put the phone back onto the receiver.

Ace peeked in from the other side of the door. “Need to clock out?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s going on?”

“No idea, I’ll let you know as soon as possible.”

“No rush man. You’ve been working too many hours this week anyway.”

It wasn’t until Zoro was walking into the parking lot that he felt a clawing sensation down his back. He took note that his breathing had increased by the time he stepped into his car. He probably should’ve been concerned with how quickly the car was accelerating, but since only a few people honked at him, and none of them were cops, he paid it no mind. Zoro was curious as to how he had gotten to the front doors of the hospital so quickly, but he was already at the reception desk by the time he thought about it.

“Where’s Sanji?”

The receptionist jumped at his voice. “Sanji?”

“Sanji Blackleg, you called me earlier because I’m his emergency contact, and refused to give me information, now where is he? What happened?”

“Sir, please calm down. I’m going to need to see an ID to confirm your-“

Zoro snatched the work badge from his neck and slammed it on the counter. “Get me his doctor, his M.D, whatever the fuck you call it, and let me see him. Now.”

The receptionist hesitantly took his ID, and began looking through their folders. Zoro knew he was being aggressive. He could acknowledge this, but until he found out exactly what was wrong there was no way he’d not be on edge.

“Mr. Roronoa, Dr. Sadrin is currently with the patient, and I was told that he’s in a condition to take visitors. They’re in room 408.”

“Thank you.” Zoro took back his ID and bolted towards the elevator.

Several people hopped in with him, and each one pressed a button for the second and third floors. When he reached the fourth floor, he had to push his way through, but at least the first room he saw was 412, which meant he couldn’t possibly get lost with 408 being so close.

He looked at each room number to make sure he wasn’t getting turned around.

410

409

Janitor’s Closet.

Wait, one fucking second. Okay, this is fine. Try going to other direction.

Janitor’s closet.

409

410

411

412

Dr. Nibin’s office.

Staircase.

Zoro put his face into his hands. He really didn’t need this today. A nurse stopped next to him and tilted her head. “Excuse me sir, do you need help?”

Pulling his hands away from his face he said, “Yes, where’s room 408?”

“It’s on the floor just below this one. If you take the stairs, it’s the second room on the left.”

“Thank you.”

He did exactly what he was told, and spotted a doctor talking to a different nurse outside of the room. He walked over as quickly as he could startling the nurse in the process. “Excuse me, are you Dr. Sadrin?”

The man looked up, taking in Zoro’s appearance and nodded. “Yes. You’re Mr. Roronoa correct?”

“I am. What happened?”

“Well, Mr. Blackleg has taken a very serious fall.”

Zoro’s visioned blurred for a moment, and his voice came out slightly choked. “What.”

“Mr. Blackleg took a bad fall at work. He ended up fracturing his tailbone, and is currently under several pain medications. Come in, we can talk more inside.”

The tightness in Zoro’s throat lessened when he saw an irritated Sanji lying on his side in the hospital bed.

“Can’t wait to tell you how my day went.” Sanji rubbed a hand down his face.

“Can’t wait to hear it.”

Dr. Sadrin went over how to treat the fracture once they returned home. “Come back in in two weeks so we can check the progress. Normally these wounds take about a month to heal, but I want to make sure you’re following the regiment I’ve provided. Also, be sure to come back if there are any sudden changes in your condition.”

Sanji moved to sit up on his side. “Got it. Anything else?”

“Just need to fill out some paperwork, and then you can both head home.”

Zoro sat on the end of Sanji’s bed. “Thank you, doctor.”

“It’s no problem. I’ll organize your file and send a nurse in.”

They watched him leave with a small bow.

“I can’t believe this. How am I supposed to work?” Sanji pinched the bridge of his nose.

“As little as possible. We’ll get you a donut pillow on the way back so you don’t have to sit on your side so much. Who took you to the hospital?”

“Carne, called Zeff as soon as we found out the damage wasn’t serious, and went back to work. Sorry I didn’t call you, but I was sure I was talking to giant lobsters for about twenty minutes.”

“…seriously?”

“Tch, of course not.” Sanji’s head was slightly bobbing, and he looked Zoro up and down very seriously before clearing his throat. “Definitely not.”

“Riiight. Let’s get you home.”

* * *

 

Sanji didn’t feel too wonderful once the drugs wore off between buying the donut pillow and heading back to their apartment. His entire back ached, his head was pounding, and he felt exhausted. Zoro had been eerily silent since they left the hospital. Sanji was too worn out to question it, but he did mildly protest at being carried up the stairs like some maiden. He could walk fine. He just couldn’t sit for too long.

“Could you grab the keys from my pocket?”

Sanji grunted, felt around Zoro’s pants until he found the keys, and unlocked the door. He hoped Zoro wouldn’t try to confine him to a bed for a month. He wasn’t an invalid, and the doctor said mild exercise should be done.

Zoro set him on the bed, and put his painkillers in the hole of his donut pillow on the bedside dresser. The swordsman then knelt over the side of the bed and pressed his face into the sheets.

“Zoro?”

Sanji watched his shoulders start to shake as he dug his fingers into the sheets. “Zoro?”

Zoro mumbled something, curling in on himself as best as he could.

Sanji arranged himself and pressed his hands against the bed besides Zoro’s head. “Hey. I’m all right. I’m fine.”

Zoro’s shoulders were hunched. The cook didn’t think the muscles in his arms could get anymore high strung. He placed a hand over Zoro’s and used his free hand to run it over short green locks. “You’re thinking of Kuina, right?”

A choked sob was the closest he was going to get to an affirmation.

“Come up on the bed.” Sanji half-heartedly tugged at Zoro’s hand. Zoro tugged his arm back. “Come on, get up here you shithead.”

Zoro moved at that, burying his face against Sanji’s neck, and wrapping his arms around the blonde’s chest. Sanji felt tears and likely snot dribbling along his neck and down the collar of his shirt. Luckily he’s dealt with worse bodily fluids working in a restaurant. At some point Zoro’s shaking had calmed down, and he breathed a little easier.

“Probably not the best thing to happen before your birthday is it?”

“Ah fuck I forgot about that! I’ve been having shit luck with birthday’s lately haven’t I?”

Zoro sniffed. “Did you ever forgive Donny for taking a shit in your shoes?”

“That puppy is cute, but not that cute. Maybe I’m not as ready for a dog as I think I am. Hope you didn’t already buy one for me.” Sanji felt Zoro’s arm shift behind him.

“Too late. I invested in a puppy pool and everything. They don’t give you your deposit back this late.”

Sanji laughed and turned his head to leave an awkward kiss against Zoro’s ear. “I’m sure you can convince them otherwise.”

Zoro pulled his face away from Sanji’s neck and wiped as much wetness as he could from his face.

Looking at the redness of Zoro’s face, Sanji felt a tug in his chest. “I love you.”

Zoro sniffed again. “Love you too.”

A smile grew on Sanji’s face. “If that’s the case, do you think I could double up on painkillers on my birthday? I remember being promised amazing birthday sex.”

Zoro let out a huff of laughter and looked down to hide his grin. “Maybe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im sorry, im sorry, im so sorry, thank you for the comments i received, honestly i havent been in the mood to write and ive been drawing for a different fandom, ill talk more about where this series is gonna go in the note of the last chapter for this story because i have a bit to say and dont want to overwhelm anyone rn,thank you for sticking around i really appreciate it, thank you thank you


	3. Chapter 3

Sanji sat in the sweet smelling bakery on his donut pillow, which he was only slightly made fun of for, as Brook and Franky wheeled out a giant, bright, pink, cake. “Happy Birthday Sanji!” was written on the front in blue letters, and the blonde was kind of on edge due to the sheer size of the thing. The frosting was too stiff to be cream cheese and too plastic to be fondip. He was so busy observing the cake he didn’t hear when they started singing “Happy Birthday.”

So he barely kept himself from clutching his chest when two people jumped out of the cake at the last “you!” in the song. The man was built, brunette, and Sanji wasn’t sure if he was wearing pants. The woman was busty, blonde, and Sanji was sure that was the tiniest bikini top he’d ever seen.

“Happy birthday Sanji.” They said in unison.

“Hey.” Sanji had a smug smile on his face.

The girl crossed her arms so her chest budged out. “We heard you had a bad booboo.”

“Maybe I could kiss it better?” The guy said with a wink.

Sanji clapped his hands together. “Well, I’m free after this.” Turning around, he pointed at the cake. “This is my gift from all of you right? I’ll take it to go. No need for anything else.” He placed his hands in his lap. “Zoro, I’m gonna need the keys, you can go home with Law. I will call you in the morning.”

“That’s not your gift, shitty cook.” Zoro pressed a kiss against his temple.

Both the man and woman were lounging on the edges of the cake when the woman spoke up. “I don’t know, he’s cute enough to make an exception.”

The man growled.

 Sanji still had a smug smile on his face. “We could make it a foursome.”

“Thank you both for your service, Franky wheel the cake away.” Zoro snapped a little too quickly.

There was a chord of chuckling and snickering behind them as the cake was wheeled to the back. Another, much smaller, cake was wheeled in instead with two lit candles. One was the number two, and next to it stood a question mark. Luffy “aawwed” from the back, and someone grunted. Probably Usopp holding the other man back.

Nami appeared beside him. “Make a wish.”

“I wish for the other cake.”

Zoro glowered at him.

“I was kidding…partially.” He blew out the candles, and anything Zoro was about to say was drowned out by the cheering.

Zoro was pulled aside by Ace, and they went to the front of the store to talk in hushed tones.

“Hey, so my fireworks guy is gonna be a little late.”

“Are you serious.”

Ace shrugged. “Traffic, looking out for police, ya know.”

“Looking out for- Why is he looking out for the police?”

“These fireworks are from North Blue, man. Not exactly legal here, don’t think about it. Sabo’s been doing this for years.”

Law chose that moment to appear and tug hard on Ace’s ear. “Did I hear you fucking say Sabo.”

“That hurts!”

“It’s supposed to. I know you haven’t forgotten his last visit.”

Ace rubbed his ear. “It’s not like we didn’t have enough money to replace that building.”

Zoro rubbed a hand down his face. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.” Zoro pointed to Law. “You, not a word out of you about this.” He then pointed to Ace. “As for you, if this goes to shit, I’m gonna kick your ass, and then I’m gonna kick his ass.”

Someone tugged on his arm, and he looked down to see Chopper. “What is it?”

“What kind of medication did you say they put Sanji on?”

“Just some over the counter stuff called Neoprofen. Why?”

Chopper tsked. “Well, it’s nothing serious, but you guys have been here for a while, and I think he’s pushing himself more than he should.”

Glass shattering startled their small party, and they all looked over to see Sanji looking sorry while speaking to Robin. A broken plate sat scattered around a smushed piece of cake on the floor. She placed a hand on his shoulder to reassure him, but it didn’t look like it worked.

“Looks like he is, but I can’t force him to go when he doesn’t want to.”

Chopper hmed and started rocking on the balls of his feet. “Yeah but, he listens to you better than me.”

“He’s gonna insist that he opens his presents first, then I’ll have about a 70% chance of getting him to leave early.” Turning back to Ace. “You, tell this Sabo guy he doesn’t have to co-“

The screeching of tires interrupted his sentence as a black camry pulled in front of the building.

“That’s him now.” Ace headed outside.

Law rolled his eyes. “Chopper, how are you at treating burn wounds? The most I can do is second degree with limited supplies.”

“Uh, why are you asking me that?”

Keimi called over from the large table by the cake. “Guys, get over here! Sanji’s about to open his presents.”

Sanji was practically glowing at the pile of wrapped boxes that sat in front of him. At some point, Usopp let him borrow his pocket knife to start opening the boxes faster. He got a nice set of knives from Vivi and Luffy, a stuffed dog plush from Keimi and Law. He made a reach for Robin’s gift, but she told him it was better for him to open it at home. Brook chipped in with Chopper to get him some crockware deep dish pans and a new rice cooker. Franky got him a prank gift of the ugliest hat he’d ever seen. It was green with purple spirals swirling out of the sides. Nami gave him what she always did which was a coupon for a night of free drinks on her dime, a truly expensive gift.

Last but not least came Zoro’s gift which was a small black velvet box.

Everyone gasped at the sight. Even Ace and Sabo who had just walked in to see the blonde holding it in his palm. They all stared at Zoro, who met each of their eyes with a confused look.

Sanji looked at him with wide eyes before redirecting his gaze towards the black box. He held it away from him as if it were about to go off and slowly lifted the lid. After checking the contents he let out a sigh of relief and relaxed in his seat. “Don’t worry guys, it’s just cuff links.”

Everyone let out the same sigh of relief at the information making Zoro huff.

“What the fuck did you all think it was?”

No one answered him, choosing to look away or start a conversation with the person closest to them.

“I love them, thank you.” Sanji slipped the box into his jacket pocket on the back of his chair.

Ace clapped his hands together loud enough to garner everyone’s attention. “Well, now that that’s all handled. It’s time for the closing event. If everyone would head outside.”

Zoro helped Sanji to stand, and everyone followed Ace outside. Luffy at the sight of Sabo quickly climbed onto the blonde’s back before they made it one foot out the door. Sabo pulled a remote out of his pocket and flicked a few switches.

The springing sound of fireworks followed afterwards. When the sparks went off, they formed the shape of several giant flowers. Firework after firework went off after that creating pictures or just small sparks to snap their attention.

“How’d you get fireworks?” Sanji squeezed Zoro’s arm.

“A lot of people owe me favors for things, and I pull ‘em when I need too.”

“I see.”

“By the way, who helped you plan my birthday party?”

Sanji raised an eyebrow. “That’s a weird question to ask, but if you wanna know, it was Franky.”

“Franky? Why Franky?”

“Well we don’t get to hang out that much, and it’s weird talking to Law.”

“How is it weird?”

“Don’t know, it just is. Ah, look at the dragon.” Sanji pointed at the red and yellow set of fireworks now darting across the sky in the shape of a dragon.

Usopp was taking short videos of it with his phone. The next set of fireworks spelled out “Happy Birthday Sanii!” Zoro pinched the bridge of his nose. A small “whoops” was heard from their group before Sanji started laughing. Something akin to relief settled in Zoro’s chest from his reaction. Sanji’s laughter calmed down, and he tilted his head to look at Zoro with half lidded eyes and a wide grin on his face. His fringe drifted to the side revealing his other blue eye.

“I guess I should stop calling you unromantic now, huh?”

Zoro felt his cheeks growing warm at that look. “…fuck.”

“Yeah, let’s go home.”

“Go to the car, I’ll get everything.”

Sanji held his hand out for the keys, which Zoro gladly handed over. The fireworks were still going off, but the swordsman managed to get Brook, Robin, and Vivi to help him clean everything up. Usopp and Nami caught on, and went inside to help as well. In the end, what looked to be an hour clean up only took about twenty minutes with the amount of hands that were moving. With an armful of gifts, Zoro said goodbye and was greeted with the sight of a blonde chef drooling on the window in the passenger seat.

How Sanji fell asleep with the fireworks still going off he’d never know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe I made you guys wait 4 days for something that should've been done in two, and I'm sorry. First I'm giving a shout out to Niji(you sweet darling) and 1key for showing me their concern. Don't worry, nothing bad is going on with me. So here's how it goes.
> 
> I'm deleting Incubus. It's just not going to get finished, and I have enough unfinished fanfic on this account. If you want to know how it ends, you can contact me on my tumblr: askanerdwhocosplays, or you can make up your own ending. If there's anyone who's interested in finishing it, hmu. I had the whole thing finished in my head, but when that happens it get's harder and harder for me to write things out. No idea why. I ended up thinking of several different Incubus Sanji fics that I would love writing more than this one. End of story.
> 
> Secondly, for this series, I probably only have 2 more good long fics in it along with some drabbles. However, I'm starting to feel myself getting slowly sucked into the Hunter x Hunter fandom since I've read the entire manga, and as their fandom doesn't have nearly enough people writing ship fics like One Piece does, I may be kind of needed there. Maybe? I just don't want to promise stories for this series that I may not get around to writing. So what I'm going to do is write one more drabble for this series, mark it as complete in case I don't get back to it, and if I happen to end up writing more fic for it than it'll be a surprise for everyone including me cause I honestly see myself breaking this promise sooner rather than later.
> 
> Thank you all so much for sticking with me for so long. All of your comments made me laugh and cry because you all really do love how I interpret these characters. And although I'll never been on a fic rec list (because lets face it, im stll a literary potato), seeing your feedback was more than incentive enough to do what I could for you.
> 
> Thank you, thank you, thank you! <33333


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